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CAUSES AND REMEDIES 



P R E S E N T C O N V U L S 1 N S 



A. DISCOITKSK 



liV KKV. JOHN C. LORD, 1.) U. 



JOSEPH WARREN i CO., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, 17S WASHINtTON 
1861, 



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A DISCOURSE 

DELIVEJ^ED ON THE DAY OF FASTING, HQMILIATION AND PRAYER 

APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 

AND BY THE MODERATOR OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES 

OF AMERICA, JANUARY 4th, 1861; 

BY JOHN C. LORD, D. D, 

PASTOR OF THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, BUFFALO, N. Y, 



"When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through 
the rivers they shall not overtlov/ thee. When tliou walkest through the 
fire thou shalt not be burned: neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. 
Fear not, for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the East, and 
gather thee from the West. I will say to the North, give up, and to the 
South, keep not back." — [Isaiah, xlih, 2, 5, 6. 

It would seem from the amazement and alarm, which have re- 
sulted from the present convulsed state of the nation, that the peo- 
ple of this countiT Lave anticipated an exemption from those cal- 
amities, which, in the course of the divine providence, have accom- 
panied, and for a time checked, the outgrowth and progress of the 
most" fortimate empires since the beginning of time. We have 
imagined, in our unprecedented prosperity,tliatwesliould never be 
moved, that we should never be in adversity, and that the divine 
judgments ^would tail to overtake us for our national sins. "VVe 
have been justly punished for that vain-glorious boasting, which 
has long excited tlie ridicxde of the trans- Atlantic nations. — ■- 
Our Union, our wealth, our popidation, oiu' rapid territorial 
extension, liaA'e puffed us up with a pride and conceit, and filled 
us with a false security, so foolish aud heaven-daring, that it 
has at last provoked the judgments of God. Xot that it is the 
pui-pose of the Most High to destroy this great Republic in its 
infancy, and with all the great proviflentia] ends of its existence 



1 

nnaecomplished. Wc cannot bdievt- this; the loundinr-- of theEno-- 
lish Colonies in Xorth Anieriwi, their subsequent independence and 
union coet too great a price, and were marked in their progress with 
too many tokens «.t" the ulterior j.urjioses of tlie divine pro- 
vidence to allow st> disastrous a conclusion. Are not the* prayers 
of the early Colonists, from the Bay of Massachusetts to the Gulf of 
Mexico — of the Puritans of the Xorth, the Presbyterians of the 
middle Colonies, and the Huguenots of the South — yet had in re- 
membrance before God ? Are not their teai-s '' preserved in Plis 
bottle V Are not the graves of the tounders of the Republic, of the 
men who gathered the feeble, distracted and insolvent States of 
this continent into one great empire too fresh, as yet, for the de. 
Btruction of the mighty work, accomplished by their wisdom, fore- 
bight antl nuitual forbearance ? Are the counsels of the Father of 
his counti-y so soon forgotten :' Have the people of the United 
States been so suddenly bereft of their characteristic sagacity in 
all that concerns their material interests, as to plunge with their 
eyes open into the bottomless abyss of secession and dis-union ? 
Will they submit for any length of time to any movement in that 
direction ? Xot until all patriotism is extinguished, not until all 
perception of national and individual interests is utterly lost, not 
until they are prepared to dishonor the graves of the dead who 
fell in every battlefield from Bunker Hill to yorkto^vn, and from 
Yorktowni to the swamps of South Cai-(«lina, •' where rang the 
shouts of Marion's men;" nay, more, not until they pour contempt 
upon the memory of the men who fell in the last war upon the 
Niagara frontier, and in the battle of New Orleans, can this Un- 
ion be finally and hopelessly destroyed. Why, the br.nes ctf the 
liero of New Orleans would rattle in their coffin at such a consum- 
mation, Tennesee nmst remove the remains of Andrew Jackson 
from her soil, if she secedes, for his grave is a pei-petual protest 
against disunion. How SNnftly fied the unholy spectre of treason 
before the eagle eyci and iron will of the stern old Patriot, 
when, in tiie^proper exercise of his authority as Chief Magistrate, 
he exorcised it by the stroni: hand. 



5 

It is with this view of the subject, because Ave believe that God 
is chastising us in mercy as well as in wrath, for ever the Divine 
Providence presents to us a mingled cup of judgments and mercies, 
— because no great people or nation have ever reached the end of 
their progress or the maturity of their power, without passing 
through the iii'es of affliction, and undergoing the thi-oes of intes- 
tine convulsions quite as formidable as the worst that threaten us 
— that we have adopted the language of the Supreme Governor 
addressed to his ancient people, the Hebrews, while smarting un- 
der the rod of Divine chastisement. The trials which threaten us 
are not to be met by dismay, despondency and terror, — these can 
only exasperate the malady of the body politic, — these can only 
lead to pusillanimous counsels and undecided action, — rather let 
us hear this voice from Him who led our Fathei's to this continent 
and planted here a great nation, developing for the benefit of man- 
kind a perfection of civil and religious liberty, before held unat- 
tainable. " "Wlien thou passest through the waters, I will be with 
thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee. When 
thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither 
shall the flame kindle upon thee. Fear not, for I am with thee. 
I will brino; thv seed from the East and rather thee from the West. 
I will say to theNoi-th give up, and the South keep not back." 

While we humble ourselves before God by humiliation, fasting 
and prayer, let us lay aside our despondency, let us take refuge 
under the shadow of the vring of the Almighty, exclaiming, " God 
is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in every time 
of trouble, therefore 'will we not fear, if the earth were removed, 
though the mountains were carried into the depths of the sea." 
In the infancy of that great Republic of antiquity, which traversed 
tkree continents with its victorious arms, which conquered aU that 
was worth conquest in Europe, Asia and Africa, intestine commo- 
tions repeatedly threatened its existence. AVhat reader of history 
has forgotten the numerous exigencies in which the Roman ]3eople 
were compelled, by threatened disruption, to invest a Dictator 
with absolute power fur a time, with the injunction, " to see that 



the Republic took no detriment." "Who has forgotten the civil 
wars between the Patricans and the Plebians, deluging the streets 
of the " Eternal City" with blood i Xor did these difficulties en- 
tirely disappear until the wonderful vitality of the Republic and 
the love of liberty disappeared under the despotisms of the Caesars. 
The very vigor of the body politic will produce eniptions in youth- 
ful and expanding Empires. Tliere may be an excessive vitality, 
producing dangerous symptoms, and shall we cower before the 
fii-st irregular action of these exuberant forces? Wliy, it was a 
standing maxim of the statesmen and people of Rome, " never to 
despair of the Republic," no nuitter if the enemy was at their 
gates — no nuitter if civil war was desolating their hearths. Shall 
the great Christian Republic of the 10th century, of which Rome 
was the archetype, manifest less courage and less resolution in the 
presence of similar dangers ? Is modern history less instnictive ? 
How often has that great nation, which has girdled the earth with 
her colonies, from whom we boast our own descent, been rent by 
intestine commotions and desolated by civil wars, the last of 
which tliat ]>laced William and Mary upon the throne of Great 
Britain, was within the menioiy of men living in our revolutionary 
era. What perpetual desolations for the last eighty yeai-s have 
made France a field of blood and a place of skulls, and yet she is 
to-day at the head of the continental powers of Europe, prosperous 
and progressive. Shall we fold ourhands in fear and despair, be- 
cause that which has occurred in all vigorous nationalities, has 
happened to us, — because the judgments with which God has chast- 
ened all nations for " pride, fulness of bread and abundance of 
idleness," have fallen deservedly onus " for reproof^ for correction 
and instruction in righteousness T No! no! Let ns gird up the 
loins of our minds. God does not call us to the spirit of fear, but 
"of power and a sound mind." Let us have no more Avhining, 
no more irresolute counsels, nt> more desponding prophecies of 
ruin; in such a crisis, let us show oui"selves men, worthy sons of 
the sires who faced the terroi-s, both of a foreign and civil war, in 
their desperate struggle for freedom and unictn, F<,>r wluit was 



tiie contest between the Whigs and Tories of the revolutionai-y' 
era, but the worst fonn of a civil war, in which it was not section 
against section, Xorth against South, East against West, but house- 
hold against household; nay, worse, it was a v/ar at the hearth, 
son against father and lather j against son. Are we so de- 
generate as to faint in the ni'st day of advereity ? Tnily, in such 
a case, our " strength is small" and we may well become a prey 
to " treason's stratagems and spoils." 

But it may be said, " this is a day of fasting, humiliation and 
prayer, in which we are called to look at the sad side of the pres- 
ent convulsions which threaten the integrity of our Union and the 
permanency of our government." Truly it is a day of humilia- 
tion, the setting apart of which was a higlily proper act of the 
Executive, whatever else may have been neglected; but fasting 
and prayer do not imply irresolution and cowardice. The Puri- 
tans, in their deadly struggle with the Stuarts, fasted and prayed 
to some purpose ; the soldiers of Cromwell, who carried Bibles in 
their knapsacks and made conventicles of their military quarters, 
were the bravest of the brave. It becomes us, indeed, to repent 
of our sins, to retrace our steps, where we have been wrong, to 
implore the divine guidance, and then to face our difficulties with 
the courage and constancy of a true Christian patriotism* 

We shall endeavor, in the first place, to improve the present 
occasion by a brief consideration of some of the causes of the dis- 
cords which have residted in convulsions which threaten the per- 
petuity of our Union and our institutions, and endeavor, in the 
second, to point out the remedies. 

Anterior to the revolution, the Colonies were existing under 
different forms of social life. The history of the introduction of 
African slavery is familiar. It was at first forced upon the colo- 
nists by the mother country and afterwards extended by the ship 
owners of ISTew England, M'ho found the impoi-tation of slaves 
from the west coast of Africa a highly profitable speculation. At 
the time when our present Constitution was framed and adopted, 
there was no substantial difference of opinion in the theoretical 



Views of shivi'ry between the North ai\(i the South. In some of 
the Xorthern States it was not aholisluHl until l<»ng after the union ; 
in all the States it was admitted to bi' an evil which wmild dis- 
appear by o-nidnal emancipation in the j)rocess of time. No 
public sentiment in any part of the United States denounced the 
system as in itself sinful, and its abolition was sim})ly a question 
of expediency with reference xo its influence u]>on the white 
race and their material and mural interests. Tliere was no dis- 
8ensi(.»n in respect to slavery at that time among the ^•arious de- 
nominations of Christians; North and South, the prevailing senti- 
ment a2"»pears to have been that African servitude, existing under 
the form and by the sanction of law, was a valid institution under 
wliich both masters and shaves had tlieir duties and their rights 
to be enforced by the Church of Christ, precisely as they arc in 
the New Testament by Apostolic example and authority. No 
considerable body of Christians doubted that the action of the 
Savior and the Apostles in dealing with the relation <A' master 
and sla\e, as they dealt with othei- legal existing i-elations vras 
binding upon the Church. 

On the other hand, it M'as witli equal unanimity maintained that 
slavery is not the highest ionw of Christian civilization or of social 
life ; that while it is tolerated in both Testaments it is not expected 
to bepennanent or perpetual; that while it is ]>rovidentially and 
scripturally allowed, because it is one of the means by which in- 
ferior and indolent races have been and are elevated by enforced 
subjection t<j labor and law, yet its abandonment was to be ex- 
pected whenever its ends were fully accomplished. Both North 
and S(^>nth, it was agreed that slavery nnist at some time cease, 
and that a system of free labor was undoubtedly to be preferred 
whenever it could be safely and judiciously accomplished. It 
was felt and acknowledged on all hands, that there were inherent 
dangers and difHculties in the sy^tem <»f servitude, more par- 
ticularly where there was a large preponderance of the slave 
population. That these moderate, just and Christian views of the 
subject were oiitcrtaiiu^d l»y the fouiidcis <if tlu' lu^public in i)oth 



9 

sections of the country, does not admit of a doubt. Tlie debates 
in the Convention which formed our excellent Constitution, estab- 
lish this beyond all controversy. This agreement in sentiment 
was one basis of the Union, and led to the mrutual concessions by 
which free and slave States were brought togetlier in indissolul)le 
Union. 

A primary cause of the present disorders is the abandomnent 
by multitudes both North and South of these moderate views, — 
views in accordance with scripture, reason and experience. 

More than thirty years since, a class of men in the North com- 
menced a crusade against the South and Southern institutions, 
denouncing slavery as the " sum of all villianies" and the slave- 
holder as the greatest of all villians. The vocabulary of abuse 
was ransacked for epithets to heaj) upon our Southern brethren. 
Kidnappers, murderers and thieves were among the mildest terms 
applied to them by these pseudo pliilanthropists, whose hatred of 
the master was far more apparent than their love of the slave. 
Abandoning utterly the scriptural mode of dealing with slavery, 
refusing the teachings and example of the Apostles who had to 
do with in its worst forms, they outraged equally decency and 
common sense in their bitter denunciations and fanatical violence. 
These extreme men whose infidel tendencies, then predicted, have 
since become patent and apparent to all were never numerous in any 
section, but they made up in noise what they wanted in numbei-s. 
Christian denominations began at length to be influenced by this 
continued clamor, many sincere but injudicious and impulsive 
men in the ministry and membership of various churches were 
led to believe that these brawlers had really advanced to a higher 
standard of duty than had the Christian church ; they were told 
this so often that they began to l)elieve it. What was the Gospel 
of Rosseau and the French Encyclopedists and Jacobins, they 
strangely mistook for the Gospel of Christ, and this was the 
entering wedge of division in several denominations, resulting in 
the secession of the Korthern from the Soutlicrn branch. 

On the'othor liaiid, besides tiie natural e\as]i('ratinn felt by our 



to 

brethren of the slave States in view of such treatment, tlier0 
grew out of it as another result, a «lisp(^sition on the part of ex- 
treme men at the South to glorify slavery. This was at hi-st by 
way of retaliation, l)nt afterwards, and ])y a natural process, it be- 
came the settled conviction of these men that slavery was 'Heavens' 
tii-st law' of society, that there was in the future nothini^^higlieror 
better — that tlieir social condition was nearly millenial and that 
all c-oiiuiiunities, and the Noith especially, would do well to adopt 
the slave code, in wliich alone, they contended, is the j)ei'fectioji 
of human society. The extremists of one party made slavery the 
image of Hell, every master a demon and every, slave a martyr 
to the lash. Drawing upon their imaginations for their facts, they 
tilled the X<»rth with liorrid tales and hideous pictures, and came 
at last l)y constant^repetition to believe the fictions generatetl in 
their heated ftmcies. The extremists of the Southern side made 
the social condition of a slave State the image of Paradise, every 
master a pattern of gentleness, every slave a model of obedience. 
To these extreme opinions and tlieir elfect upon tlie people, both 
North and South, may be traced miquestionably the origin^of the 
present disturbed condition of our cf>nunon comitry. The fii-st 
direct bk)W struck at our Union was inflicted, I am sorry to say 
it — but trutli compels me to bear this testimony — by those Xortli- 
ern churclies who virtually excommunicated their Southern V)reth- 
ren, saying in the arrogant spirit of the Pharisee, 'Stand aside, 
for I am holier then thou,' and this too with the inheritance of 
the projits of the slave trade in their ])Ossession and the proceeds 
of the sale of what they are ])lease(l to call the 'human (chattel " 
in their j)ockets ; for in the alx>lition of slavery in the Northern 
Colonies antl States, sutlicient time was always given the master 
to dispose of his slaves at the South, M'hich was done in vamt cases 
by the virtuous Northernei-s whose desceiidants and heirs ww now 
so al>horrent of property in num I 

But, besides the unnecessary and unchristian antagonism upon 
the moral and j-eligious tjuestions in\iil\e<l in the existence of 
shiverv. there has been a conslaiitlv inerea^iii';- political iealousv 



n 

between the two sections, whicli has materially aided in produc- 
ing the present disastrous state of things. Instead of rejoicing 
over the unprecedented prosperity ^^-hich God has given our com- 
mon country, many at the Kortli have had a feverish jealousy of 
the ascendancy of Soutliern statesmen in the national coimsels. 
They have not alleged that the country was badly governed, 
but that the population and progress of the Southern States in 
comparison with the greater increase of the Is'orth did not M'arrant 
their overshadowing influence. The feet has been overlooked that 
this was the necessary result of the superior sagacity of the South 
in sending their best men to Washington and keeping them there, 
while the election t)ften of inferior representatives and the prin- 
ciple of rotation in office, prevailing among all political parties at 
the North, has resulted in the natural predominance of those who 
by their ability and long experience were best 'prepared to guide 
the shijj of state. 

ISTow it is my solemn conviction, that this political ascendancy 
of the Soutli, solely the fruit of the folly of the E"orth, has had 
more to do with the result of the recent presidential election than 
all the abolition theories and all the abolition speeches with which 
the ]Srorthern States have been afflicted for the last thirty yeais. 
There never has been, — I do not believe there ever will be, — a major 
ity of JSTorthern voters, disposed to disturb the social economy of 
the South, or who would, knowingly, lend themselves to a viola- 
tion of tlie rights of the slave states under the constitution. The 
unhappy jealousy of southern predominance has far more influ- 
ence with northern men, than the outcry against slavery. The 
truth is. Abolitionism proper has had its day at the North and ia 
in a feeble and declining condition, and is destined, if let alone, 
to die the natural death of all such fanaticisms. 

On the other hand, our Southern bretheren have been jealous 
of the increasing predominance of the North in population, and 
of the rapid increase of free states, disturbing the balance which 
they tbndly hoped to maintain, at least in the Senate. They have 
undertaken to contend with tlje laws of nature, and the course of 



12 

tlu- (li\iiu' jir. >\ idi'iu-i', l)y wliieli tlit* West and JS'urth West have 
l)t'(.'U (ic-c-in)ic'(l, luul are now Ulling up with a liardy population 
from tlio <k'sj)otisnis of the old World, who can not only live but 
i^row rich where a plantei- ami liis s€*rvants wnuld t^tarve.* This 
unnatural and unreasonable sectional jealousy is one of the initia- 
ting Causes which has aided in pioducing the calamities which 
have called us together to day, to implore the divine forgiveness, 
and tiic reiiiDxal of the divine judgments. 

A third cuuse whicii we name in this connection, is the attempt- 
ed violation of the Constitution by several of the Northern States, 
in res})ect to the rendition of fugitive slaves. That the constitu- 
tion guarantees to the South the return of fugitive slaves is not 
denied. This was one of the compromises, and one of the condi- 
tions (»n whicli tiie Union was established. The attempted seces- 
sion at Charleston, which is in fact i-ebellion against the general 



♦ Tlie tenitoiinl question is an offslioot of tliese extreme views. ^[a.s8.icliusetts 
sends her free soil men, with rifles, into Kansa* to keep out the horrible institution 
of slavery, while South Carolina and other Slave States force an unnatural coloniza- 
tion, in a like antagonistic spirit, scndinpf her slavery propagandists, with bowie 
knives and blacks, to establish the '■divine'' institution, where the conditionsof climate 
and soil are utterly opposed to its success. Theoretically the question now is 
whether slavery, under the Constitution, follows the 'lex loci.' or whether it exists 
by virtue of the organic law without any special enactment to legalize it. Several 
tejLsible methods have been proj)osed for the .settlement of this initating controversy. 
The plan of Judge Douglas, to give to the inhabitants of every Territory the si)lc 
right to deteimine this ipiestion, lias long been before the country; even the C^hicago 
}jlatform does not piccluih^ this plan of adjustment. The recent proposition oi that 
venerable statesman and true patriot, Senator Crittenden, of Kentucky, would, in my 
opinion, be entirely acceptable to the great majority of Northern men. The only 
depaitment of the government, in wliich it would be possible to secure in perpetuity 
to the South an equality in representation, is the judiciary. 

My an amendment of the organic law it might be made imjieiative upon the 
President and Senate to ai)point an ('(|ual number of the Judges of the Supreme 
Court from the two sections, so that tlie free and slave states would be always e(jually 
represented in that august tribunal, which as the Court of last resort, has the final 
decision of all questions arising under the Constitution, and is really the only 
Supmne powor in tlie State. It miglit be fiiither jirovided that all questions arising 
under the Constitution in regard to slavery, aiid in resjiect to the constitutionality- of 
State enactments, and the rendition of fugitive slaves, should be decided by a bendi 
CKiuposed e(piallyof Xorthern and Southern Judges and that all such fpiestions 
should he privileged, R\n\ receive the /?«//!t'(ft((<e attention and .sptfft/y adjudication of 
the tribunal. The high character of tlie Supreme ("'oiirt — the fact tliat the juilgcs are 
placed beyond the hejit of mere party strife, and have a reputation to sustain before 
the country and the world, which must be deaicr to them than mere sectional sen- 
timent or a|))irobation, would undoubtedly enable them, with a good degree of unani- 
mity, to decide these exciting questions without delav. When' c;in Ihey be settled 
so fairly and so sotisfactorily ? 



• 13 

governiueiit, is the natural rcisult uf tJiis coiistnictivc treason at 
the North, for it is in the nature of things, that one treason should 
beget another; that the abandonment of constitutional compacts 
in one State, should provoke open insurrection in another. Can 
Massachusetts and Vermont exj)ect to retain the blessings of the 
Union, and enforce its authoi'ity upon others, while tliey set the 
example of state legislation against the supreme law ? Those who 
are engaged in, and justify such legislation, dishonor the graves 
of their fathers, they violate the sacred compact of the dead, they 
rend a covenant made before Earth and Heaven, before angels 
and men, upon which rests the peace and prosperity of more than 
thirty millions of souls; they seek to blot out the last hope, and 
the last experiment of a repuljlican government, strong enough to 
occupy a place among the great nations of the earth. Are iKjt 
these vi(jlations of good faith provocative of the divine indigiui- 
tion ? Shall not God judge and avenge himself of such a people 
as this ? 

The counter legislation and violence of the South, while it can- 
not be justified, for one wrong can never justify another, is yet a 
natin-al consetpience of the attempt at the North to evade and md- 
lify one of the compacts of the constitution. Nor can their natural 
sensitiveness in regard to servile insurrections, justify the outra- 
geous and indiscriminate violence which has disgraced portions of 
the South, in their barbarous treatment of innocent Northern men, 
without the forms of hiM', or even the color of provocation. Such 
conduct serves as an apology for their traducers: it tends to alien- 
ate their friends, and call down upon them the just judgments of 
God. There is a tone of bravado, a glorying in monstrous acts ()f 
violence, a sneering at Northern thrift, an impeachment of North- 
c]-n courage, on the part of a portion of the press at the South, 
which is creating and exasperathig a sectional feeling at the North, 
drifting us on' to a bloody collision. That this is not an indication of 
the general temper of the South, I know from a recent residence 
of many months in a cottoii-gi-owing State. There is not a more geir 
erons, Uospitnble, cliivalrons ])eopleoil the face of the eartji. The 



14 . 

Hrdent sun of the tropics lias iiiileecl coiuiiuiiiiciitod t<> them some 
• •rit.s heat, and they are (jiiick and impulsivt- in their friendships 
and emnities; hut they are ever ready to retract an erroneous 
cipiiiioK, or C()rrect a false judgment. The church of (r<jd has no- 
where more faithful and elotj^uent ministers, iiowliere more exem- 
j)lary and benevolent comnmnicauts. That the great body of the 
Southern people are not directly responsible for the gasconade of 
i\ cla83 of politicians and editors, who offend both the taste and tlu' 
moral feelingof the Xoith, aj)peai'S very plainly from tliediscoui'se 
of the Rev. Dr. Dabney, of the South, upon the occasion of u fast 
recently apj)oiuted by the Synod of Virginia. After desciibing 
scenes in the French Revolution, he says : 

" Now 1 say unto you in all faithfulness, that the reckless and incapable 
men whom vou have weakly trusted with power or influence, have already 
led us far on towards similar calamities. They have bandied violent words 
those cheap weapons of petulant feebleness; they have justified aggression; 
thcv have misrepresented our tempers and principles — answered, alas, by 
equal misrepresentations and violence in other quarters — until multitudes of 
honest men, who sincerely suppose themselves as patriotic as you think 
yourselves, are really persuaded that in resisting your claims, they are but 
rearinnr a necessary bulwark against lawless and arrogant aggressions. Four 
vears ago, an instance of unjust and wicked insolence was avenged, on the 
iloor of the Senate of the United States, by an act of violence most unright- 
eous and illjudgeii. And now, not so much that rash and sinful act of re- 
tahation, but the insane, wicked, and insulting justification of it cfenerally 
made by southern secular prints, directed by reckless boys, or )irt>fessed 
duellists, a justification abhorred and condemned by almost all decent men 
in our section, is this day carrying myriads of votes, (of men who, if not 
thus outraged, might have remained calm and just towards us,) for the 
cause whose triumph you deprecate. Thus the miserable game goes on ; 
until at last, blood breaks out, and the exhausted combatants are taught in 
the end, by mutually inflicted miseries, to pause and consider, that they arc 
contending mainly for a misunderstanding of each other. 

" Whereunto can all this mutual violence grow ? Do not the increasing 
aufer and prejudice, which seem so f;ist ripening on both sides for a fatal 
coilision, tell vou too plainly ? And when these rash representatives of 
yours in our halls of legislation and our newspapers, shall have sown the 
wind, who shall reap the whirlwind ? When they have scattered the dra- 
gon's teeth, who nnist meet the horrent crop they will produce ? Not they 
.alone; but you, your sons, your friends and their son-^. So that these mis- 
leaders of the people, while you so weakly coiuiive at their indiscretions, may 
be indirectly preparing the weapon which is to pierce the bosom of your 



15 

tair-haired boy: aud summoning the birds of prey, wticli are to pick out 
those eyes whose joy is now the light of your happy homes, as he lays stark 
on some lost battle-field. For God's sake then — for your own sakes, for 
your children's sake, arise — declare that from this day, no money, no vote, 
no influence of yours, shall go to the maintenance of any other counsels than 
those of moderation, righteousness and manly forbearance." 

To these solemn and j^rophetic admonitions, the Korth no less 
than the South, wonld do well to take heed. It is to some extent 
with us as it is with them. A class of politicians and editors are 
ever fomenting, especially in Xew England, the discords of the 
times, sowing the dragon's teeth of jealousy, suspicion and hatred, 
provoking a storm which they have no power to quell and no true 
patriotism or courage to meet. Tlie " boys and duellists" of the 
South have no monopoly of the " Satanic press" : we have amongst 
us those who are aiding in the unholy work of scattering fire- 
brands, arrows and death; men wanting principle and bread; men 
who, like Nero, are capable of fiddling amid the flames which they 
iiave kindled— amid the falling towers of our Union and our Con- 
stitution. I am glad to except our local press from this incendia- 
rism. 

With this brief review of some of the causes which have led to 
the present convulsed condition of the country, we hasten to con- 
sider the remedies of tlie evils which seem to imperil our national 
existence. 

Li the text, the Supreme Ruler addresses words of encourage- 
ment to the Hebrews, at tlie very moment when the nation 'was 
smarting under his judganents. " Fear not, for I am with thee- 
I will bring thy seed from the East, and gather thee from tlie 
AVest ; I will say to tlie X<;»i-th, give up, and to the South, keep 
not back." May ^ve not apply these words to our own case l)y 
way of encouragement, and interpret them as a promise to gath- 
er together the true patriots of our laud from the East and the 
West, to stand in the breach and stay the tides of faction and 
disunion ? Is not the language of His providence to-day, to us, 
"I will say to the Xorth, Give uj), and to the South, Keep not 
back? Witliout a-reatlv violatinir the niio-inal meaning of these 



16 

uoitls ill tlii'ir scriplural cHiuH-t lion, iiiiiy wc not a[)ply theui, l»y 
way of jicconniKMlatiuii, t<> our own case, ami see in tliem tlie 
precise and only feasible solution of our ditticulties ^ 

It is literally true that God is saying in his providence t(. the 
North 'uive ni>,' ami to the South 'keep imt hack.' It is quite ol)- 
vious that unless the North is prepared to (/ive uj) her antaijonisni 
to the constitutional <i:uarantees for the rendition of the fugitive 
slaves of the South, unless the free States give up their unlawful 
intermeddling with the domestic aftairs and Ir.cal institutions of 
their neio:hlH)rs, a violent and Moody solution of our difticulties can- 
not be avoided. It is e(pudly true that if the South ^kceplack^ 
from accepting the proper guarantees for the future that their 
constitutional rights shall be maintained, there can be no peaceable 
settlement of <nu- national animosities. There can be no doubt that 
there is an increasing disposition at the North to remove all jus 
grounds of complaint, to rej^eal all unconstitutional State laws, and 
to frowm upon all intermeddling Avith the social system oS. the 
South. AVe implore our Southern brethren not to 'keep back' from 
these proffers of peace and good will. We solenmly assure them 
that the element t)f abolitionism is by no means predominant in 
the party which is about to assume the administration of the gov- 
ernment and that however alarming the election of a sectional 
candidate to the chief magistracy may be assumed to be, it nev- 
ertheless becomes them to wd\\ and see what course is taken by 
the incoming administration. To move in advance of this is as 
unwise as it is dangerous. It would indicate a foregone conclu- 
sion, a secession /or o^Aer reasons than those avowed^ and justify 
the allegation that there is at the bottom of the secession move- 
ment only the animosity of bafHed politicians and the ambition of 
reckless denuigogues, who hope by an act of treason to found a 
new Empire in which they can moni>poli/e all offices of trust and 
of honor. If the Xorth will at once 'give up' where they are wrong, 
and the South 'kee}) Jiot back' from a fair concession, if both will 
suffer "bygones to be bygones'' then a |)eaceable settlement of our 
difficulties may be e\pecte<I. a settleiiiciit Morthy an enHghtenetl 



17 

christian people, acceptable to God, and over which there will be 
joy in Heaven. But while we earnestly desire and pray for this 
peaceful solution of our troubles, it becomes us to look beyond this, 
and see what other remedies may be found, in case this proves im- 
possible. 

lam compelled to confess my amazement at much that has been 
said in high places and sacred places, from the Executive chair 
and in the Senate, from the forum and the pulpit, in regard to 
peaceable secession^ peaceful division and the peaceful abandon- 
ment of our union and government which has been represented 
substantially, as incapable of resisting disintregration from treason 
If this be so, we have no government, but merely the shadow or 
simulacrum of one, wliich ought to be scouted down and aban- 
doned at once. Whatever a false and sickly sentimentalism may 
pretend, however it may ape the peace and good will of the gospel, 
nothing is more certain than that the scriptural and Christian 
doctiine of government is utterly at war with the imbecile and 
pusillanimous conduct inculcated by this new political doo-ma. 
The Apostle declares that " the powers that be are ordained of 
God," in which is intended all existing governments, whether ad- 
ministered under despotic or democratic forms, "• Whosoever," 
continues the Apostle, " resisteth the power, resisteth the ordin- 
ance of God ; and they that resist shall receive to themselves 
condemnation." Again, in the same connection, it is said of 
nilei-s, meaning thereby governments in their executive action, 
" for he beareth not the SWOKD in vain, for he is the min- 
ister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth 
evil." " Wherefore," continues the Apostle, " ye must needs be 
subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake." The idea 
of any reserved right of secession of a State is incompatible with 
the existence of a general government, at war with the tenns of 
the Constitution itself and can hardly be maintained with sincerity 
by any reflecting man. The Union could never have been fonned 
with this reservation, by the people of the United States — for our 
Union is not of the States but of the people — nor could it have. 



18 

been adopted, with a ngbt of secession. Such a proviso would 
have been a nullification of the Constitution at its very inception, 
and made it but a rope of sand. If we have a government that is 
unable to protect itself against insurrection, let it be abandoned at 
oace. If our Union cannot hs maintained under Republican forms, 
ht us have centralization, a monarchy and a standing army, for 
these evils cannot compare with the absolute ruin that must follow 
our division into numerous petty, distracted States, which, like the 
Republics of South America, will become the scorn of mankind. 

The recent attempted secession of South Carolina would be a 
mere farce, notwithstanding the earnest and treasonable temper of 
its leaders, were not the example almost certain to be followed 
by the adjacent Gulf States. South Carolina contains less than 
an eightieth part of the white population of the United States. She 
is the Massachusetts of the South. It often happens that those 
who hate each other are much alike, and so it is with the Bay Stat^ 
of the North and the Palmetto State of the South. Both abound 
with glorious revolutionary recollections, both have dishonored 
them — both were foremost in accomplishing the great work of 
Union — both have done what they could to destroy it — both have 
produced an extraordinary number of able men, and both have 
alikesuffered from their ultra and fanatical opinions, either in poli- 
tics or morals ; both have been extreme advocates of State rights 
— both have attempted to nullify the Constitution of the United 
States — both are denunciatory, turbulent and violent, the one in 
word the other in deed — both arc filled with self conceit, the one 
styling Boston the Athens of the Nortli, the other claiming that 
Charleston is the Thermopylaa of the South ! In both, tlic most 
extreme opinions in regard to society and government prevail ; the 
one maintaining that the perfection of civilization is found in a 
community with one white man, tlie master of a hundred ne- 
groes; the other insisting that the beau ideal of philanthropy is 
only seen where the rights and interests of a hundred whites are 
sacrificed for the benefit of a single African. To these States, in 
their mutual likeness and their mutual hatred, more than any 
other, we owe the origin of the impending collision I 



19 

Ood forbid we should be compelled to resort to the st^m arbi- 
trament of the sword. The appeal to arms is the last remedjr 
against the destruction of the Republic — it is a sad one, but bet- 
ter than none. A civil, and even a senile war, with all their 
horrors, are infinitely preferable to anarchy; no sacrifices are too 
great for the preservation of our nationality, without which we 
are but dismembered and worthless fragments of a once glorious 
body whose dissevered limbs will be a perpetual stench in the 
world's atmosphere. It has been said, indeed, that the forcible 
suppression of secession, which is but another name for insurrec- 
tion, must be follovv'ed by an alienation of feeling and create 
bitter animosities which would render a future and forced Union 
worthless. This is plausible at first view, but is contradicted by 
uniform and univei-sal experience. Have the civil contests of 
England left behind tliem any such results ? Are the Vendean 
Provinces of France less faithful and less attached to their 
nationality to-day, because, within the memory of multitudes now 
living, they were desolated by fire and sword in a protracted 
civil war, the atrocities of which are almost unparalleled in the 
history of intestine convulsions ? Are not geographical bounda- 
ries and commercial necessities, a common language and a com- 
mon faith, more invincible than human passions, and stronger 
than the madness of any hour or any age ? Does any sane man 
really believe that the permanent separation of this great coun- 
try is possible with an Anglo-Saxon race for its occupants, and 
with all the material interests of commerce, and all the elements 
of power dependent upon its union ? Never were two sections 
of a great country more mutually dependent on each other than 
the slave and free States. The cotton of the South has almost 
uniformly paid the enormous balances which our foreign trade 
has annually left against us through our excessive importations, 
while the products of the North have always found their nearest 
and best markets in the slave States, — they are in fact a neces- 
sity, and must be while cotton and tobacco continue to be their 
great staple?. The rebellion of States against the General Gov- 



20 

emment is like the revolt of the members against the head, and 
can never, in the nature of the case, be permanent or finally 
successful. 

But it may be replied, who can foretell the issue of such a strug- 
gle — wlio can say to whom, in such a war, the Most High will 
award the victory ? Doubtless, the issue of all events is, in a de- 
gree, hidden in the womb of time, and in the purpose of God; but 
there are some things so plain that he " that runneth may read," 
in which '• the way-faring man, though a fool, need not err." 

I would I had a voice to penetrate the South, to warn them of 
impending danger. They would recognize it as the voice of a 
friend who has ever defended their rights and vindicated their 
character; of one who, ten yeai-s ago, delivered a discom'se in this 
place, wliich had an almost unprecedented circulation throughout 
the country, in which the scriptural view of slavery was presented 
and the rio-hts of the South to a restoration of their fugitive slaves 
maintained. From the then Chief Magistrate of the ISTation, — our 
eminent fellow citizen, Millard Fillmore, — whose wise and impar- 
tial administration of the government is acknowledged by all, I 
received a letter of thanks, in wliich he recognized this discourse, 
however humble the origin, as one of the instnimentalities of peace 
in that stonny time. As a tried and kno^vn friend, I would warn 
my Southern bretliern of the jDerils of their position in their at- 
tempts to revolutionize the government. I would ask them in the 
first place to consider in what position tlie Gulf States would be 
placed by the act of secession. The mildest measure possible with 
any administration, not itself in league to destroy the Union, would 
be to close tlie ports of entry in every seceeding State. This block- 
ade, easily accomplished by a few war steamei*s, could not be re- 
sisted by the Gulf States; they have neither ships nor ship-build- 
ers, and before they could obtain either, they must become insolvent 
and powerless, as the result of their isolation. Let them look this 
thing fairly in tlie face; for it is certain to follow, as it is certain 
tliat the government will not commit suicide. Let them look at it 
in another point of view.) The opening of the Gulf poi-ts as fi-ee 



21 

ports of entry would at once destroy the revenue of the conntry, 
and paralyze the commerce of the nation — virtually closing every 
port of every non-seceeding State. Do the South imagine that 
this will be permitted for an hour ? Let our Southern friends 
take another view of the ca&e. They propose secession as a de- 
fence of the slave economy ; is not this a capital mistake ? A far- 
seeing statesman of Tennesee has declared that SECESSION IS 
ABOLITION ! Without here entering upon the argument, it 
will be sufficient to suggest to the South whether they are not do- 
ing effectually the very thing which the abolitionists have vain- 
ly attempted for the last thirty years ? Will a brave man commit 
suicide because his life is threatened by a ruffian hitherto baffled 
of his purpose ? "I speak to wise men, judge ye what I say !" 
Will the border States fall, with their eyes open, into the snare of 
secession, giving the Gulf States all the profit of the revolt, if 
there be any, and assuming to themselves the immediate and cer- 
tain ruin which must follow ? Will they undertake to fortify and 
guard a frontier of a thousand miles against the daily and nightly 
flight of negroes deluded by a fancied elysium at the Korth ? 

Let us say in this connection, that the true friends of the South, 
outside of their own territory, are all at the North. Tliere is no 
nation or community on earth to wliom they can look for sympa- 
thy or from whom they can expect aid, in this proposed exodus 
from the Union. The fanaticism and prejudices of the Eiiropean 
nationalities are far more inveterate than the antagonism of the 
Northern States. Attempted secession \vill unite all parties, and 
all persons in the free states against them, not on account of slave- 
ry, but because they will be constrained to treat the enemies of 
the Governm.ent and the Constitution as their enemJes; not be- 
cause they love the South less, but the Union more. AVith the ex- 
ception of a few rabid abolitionists who hate all government and 
all law, there will be an entire unanimity in the free States in re- 
sistance to the proposed disruption of the Country. Can the slave 
States afford to remain outside the comnmnity of nations, to be 
treated as pirates at sea by the naval powers of the world, if they 



22 

should sncceed in openiDg the slave trade by a succ^ssfal attempt 
to establish a Southern confederacy ? For that this -will be the 
fii-st demand of the Gulf states, and their lirst action upon suo- 
cesful secession, no man", can doubt who is familiar with public 
sentiment in the extreme South. Are the Border states prepared 
to accept this action and incur this odium, and sacrifice their local 
interests to a foreign slave trade ? Unless they are prepared to 
do this, there will be a fresh secession and a new division among 
the tlave States themselves within twelve mouths after the inau- 
guration of the proposed Southern Republic. 

Truth compels me to say another thing, which 1 v\ould gladly 
omit, did not the present crisis demand on the part of the South a 
most careful consideration of it at the present moment. I mean 
the inherent and unavoidable vveakness of slave States in a civil 
contest with free States. Now, I have lived among my Soutliern 
brethern; I know their courage, always bordering upon rashness. 
I know their virtues. I know that the slave, both socially and 
morally, is in a far better condition at the South than the free black 
at the North; for the former is treated as a human heing^ with 
familiarity and kindness, and instructed in the gospel which 
proffers alike to master and servant the blessings of salvaticn; the 
other, not so much by any fault of his own, is made an outcast and 
a vagabond, the very Pariah of our Northern civilization. These 
things I know and confess, but I know also, and reflecting men 
every where know, that an ignorant people in servitude, however 
kindly treated, do not well understand their own interests; that an 
imaginative race like the African are easily excited and deluded 
by ideas of liberty and an Ethiopian Paradise at the North, which, 
though it fades away like a mirage at their approach, still dazzles 
their vision at a distance. Cannot the South see that a civil war, 
to which all things seem now tending, must ineviiahly render the 
scn'ile po])ulation restless and uneasy, and at last dangerous? I 
have not the least idea that a Northern army would incite or lavor 
insurrection, but they could have no power to prevent it, and in 
the Gulf States at least, the Nvhite population are not sufliciently 



23 

. numerous to engage in a civil war under a state of things which 
would require every citizen to enrol himself among the police, or- 
ganized to watch over the slave. 

A civil war must necessarily disturb the very foundations of so. 
ciety in the Slave States, while the Free States could easily spare 
more than half a million of men, " the cankei-s of a calm world and 
a long peace" — whose absence would not weaken us or disturb the 
movement of a single factory, or take a mechanic from a solitary 
workshop. Ceitainly, it becomes any people, however courageous 
and resolute, however justly offended, to count the cost, before they 
make the plunge into the gulf of a civil — ^to which must be added , 
the horrors of a sers'ile war. Nor is this commendable forethought 
without the Divine warrant. Luke 14, 31, " What King going to 
war against another King sitteth not down first and consulteth 
whether he be able Math ten thousand to meet him who cometh 
against him with twenty thousand. Or else, while the other is yet 
a great way off, hesendeth an Ambassage and desireth conditions 
of peace." 

Nor will it be unwise for the North to consider what particu- 
lar sectional profit [there will be, even in their success. They 
may save the Union, but at a loss which it will take a generation 
to repair. Suffer me to repeat, at this time, what I said ten years 
since in this place, in the discourse before referred to, as applica- 
ble now as it was then. '■ There are no visionaries so wild as 
those who dream that this vast Empire can be disunited peace- 
fully, or that peace can ever be maintained between the North 
and the South, under separate governments, with all the old 
memories, the bitter prejudices, the unavoidable rivalries, the 
unceasing disputes of jurisdiction, with the mouth of the Missis- 
sippi in one territory and its sources in the other, and with the 
inous slave question,'; embittered a thousand fold by the dis- 
memberment of the country. If, in thle unnatural ccUtest, the 
North should prevail over the South, it would be by making a 
desert of the territory from the Potomac to the Gulf of Mexico, 
and by the destruction of both the races who now occupy it, a 



^4- 

victory — as a sectional triumph barren of glory — the jest of ty- 
rants, and the scorn of the world. 

"I M-ould appeal to the North and the South, by their common 
ancestry, by tlie august memories of the revolutionary struggle, 
by the bones of their fathers which lie mingled together at York- 
town and Saratoga, at Trenton and Charleston, by the farewell 
counsels of the immortal Washington, to lay aside their animosi- 
ties and to remember that they are l)rethren. 1 would remind 
them tliat the Union has given us the blessings wliich we en- 
joy — that under its Flag our victories have been won; our borders 
extended; our wealth and population increased; our ships re- 
spected in every port of every sea, until our national progress 
has excited the admiration, or aroused the envy, of all the Na- 
tions and Potentates of the earth. I would warn them of that 
abyss of ruin which fanaticism and treason are opening beneath 
them; into which they would plunge our present fortunes and 
our future hopes. I would beseech them to stand by the Union, 
to obey the laws, to frown upon agitation, in this crisis of our 
beloved country. I would admonish them that failing to do this, 
failing to sustain the free institutions, and to regard the nmtual 
compact.s which we received from our fathers, we may expect as 
a consequence the cui-ses of posterity, the contempt of tlie world, 
and the judgments of God-" 

But I must draw to a close. I have endeavored to speak plain- 
ly, sincerely and truly, without fear or favor of North or South, 
as a patriot and a christian, as a lover of my country, and as a ser- 
vant of God. May the Almighty avert from us the horroreofa 
civil war, and if he calls us to pass through an affliction, from 
which no great nation has yec been exempted, may he give us 
grace to meet the crisis with courage and constancy, not in mortal 
terror, and with our heads bowed down as a bulnish. May God 
deliver our rulers from tlie ' sj^irit of fear,' and give them wisdom 
and courage according to their day and the crisis they are com- 
pelled to meet. May the clouds which have risen at the South, 
and which begin also to appear in our Noilhem horizon, dis- 



■charge their electric fires before thej meet in mid-heaven in a 
conflict which must darken the hopes of freedom throughout the 
world, a conflict which will bring mourning and woe into innu- 
merable households, and fill the land with widows- and oi-2:)hans. 
Hear, O Lord, the prayer of thy people in the day 'of their calam- 
ity ! accept their humiliation, avert from them thy threatened 
judgments, preserve the Union of these States, destroy not the 
people thou didst plant in the wilderness, whose dominions thou 
hast extended from ocean to ocean. Say imto us in the midst of 
the perils which surround us as thou didst to thy chosen people 
in the ancient days, "Fear tliou not, for I am with thee, be not 
discouraged, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I 
will help thee; when thou paseest through the waters I will be 
with thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be 
burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Fear not, for I 
am with thee; I will bring thy seed from the East, and gather 
thee from the West. I will say to the Xorth, give up, and to the 
South, keep not back." Amen and aiiiea. 



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